Women Scientists of Antiquity

Marie Curie. Rosalind Franklin. Ada Lovelace. Before these wonder women of modern science could make their marks, another group of females would leave their own scientific legacies in great, ancient civilizations.

2700 B.C.: Merit Ptah
The Egyptian physician was the first woman in medicine, and perhaps all of science, mentioned by name in texts. Her son, a high priest, called her “the chief physician,” and her portrait appears in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

2300 B.C.: Enheduanna
A Sumerian woman appointed as high priestess of the moon goddess. Her prestigious religious title included duties related to astronomy, such as establishing observatories and tracking the movements of the moon …

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